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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
To the Editor of the "Indian Antiquary." SIE,-The story which Professor Tawney has quoted in the July number of the Antiquary as furnishing a folklore parallel, allow me to point out, is the popular romance, given in the Jaimini Bharata of Chandrahâsa, the scene of whose adventures is localised at Kuntala-nagara, said to be Kubattur, in the extreme north-west of Mysore. The story is related in Talboys Wheeler's History of India, vol. I, p. 522; but for local accounts see Mysore and Coorg Gazetteer, vol. I, p. 187, and Mysore Inscriptions, p. xxxvii. LEWIS RICE.
Bangalore, 16th July 1881.
EXORCISM OF LOCAL VILLAGE GHOSTS. The following note on the ritual pursued when a new village or hamlet is being established may be of interest. The system prevails extensively in the Banaras Division. It extends more or less over the North Western Provinces, but I have not been able to obtain a fuller account of it than that now given, which was noted in the Gorakhpur district. The ceremony is carried out by a class of men known as Dihbandhwds. Dik, properly meaning "a village," is, like dihwár grámadeotá or bhúmiya, the distinctive title of the local village ghosts or deities. The Dihbandhwa is then literally "the man who ties up or binds the village ghost." This office is appropriated to the lower castes, especially Chamârs and Dharhis (a branch of the great På si tribe). It is even popularly believed that the presence of a Bråhman detracts from the efficacy of the rite.
The Dihbandhwas, when they arrive on the site of the proposed village, select a place and sit there for eleven days, and play a drum constantly. The playing of drums or the ringing of bells is, as is well known, distasteful to demons (cf. Brand, Popular Antiquities, pp. 424, 429, 431). On the 11th day the Dihbandhwas sit on a platform (chabútrd) made of mud, and all the men and women of the village are assembled. The Dihbandhwa then takes some sarson and rdi (kinds of mustard) and rice, and sings a song known as the pachard git, a long rambling series of verses very popular among weavers and Ojhâs (a caste of exorcisers). The word is a corruption of Upådhyaya-a teacher of the Vedas-(one of the learned classes of Brahmans). The Dihbandhwa throws the grain all round him. Then another "medicine man" known as Maṭṭiwa (the earthy one) sits on the platform, and places near him a piece of the wood of the gúlar tree (ficus glomerata), in which several holes have been bored. The Dihbandhwa then says "I am going to call the village ghosts" bhút and pret), both are the ghosts of men who
[OCTOBER, 1881.
have died a violent death, or whose funeral obsequies have not been properly performed. The pret is considered the more dangerous of the two. His feet are supposed to be turned backwards. The Dihbandhwa then throws a little urad pulse (dolichos pilosus) over the Maṭṭiwa, who shakes his head, and pretends to be under the influence of such and such a bhút or pret. He rolls about and appears to be possessed of the devil. The Dihbandhwa then takes a little of the pulse from off the head of the Maṭṭiw&, and puts it into the holes in the piece of wood, saying "I have taken from the Maṭṭiwa's head the village ghost, and am now shutting it up in the holes in the wood from whence he can never again escape to injure the villages, their crops or cattle." This piece of wood is then buried under the platform, and the village is supposed to be safe in future.
The ceremony is ended by the Dihbandhwa rolling on the ground. The villagers then put a mortar used for husking rice (okhli) on his chest, and pound bricks in it to dust for some time with a pestle. My informants could not explain the meaning of this part of the ceremony. It is probably an emblem of some kind of vicarious crushing or bruising administered to the obnoxious ghost through his representative the Dih bandhwa. The phrase expressing the completion of the exorcism is dihbandhud gdyd, "the village ghost has been tied up." In many cases the Dih bandhwa is the common local "medicine man" who looks after cases of scrcery, possession by the devil, evil eye, etc. Often, however, he has more than a local reputation, and is sent for from a considerable distance to perform this ceremony. He is greatly respected by the old women who are the reputed witches of the neighbourhood, and on these occasions they make him presents in order that he may refrain from charging them in such cases. These local ghosts are worshipped in Sawan (July-August). Sweetmeats and cakes cooked in butter are offered on the ghost's platform, and it is adorned with flowers. The ceremony is clearly non-Aryan, and is analogous in many respects to the exorcisms performed by the parihar or "medicine men" of the Gonds in Central India. WILLIAM CROOKE, C.S. Awagarh, N. W. P., 9th June 1881.
CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN KURDISTAN. Eight miles north-east of Kuchan, on the top of an outlying spur of the northern hills, is an ancient domed tomb, said to be that of the brother of Imâm Riza. Within eyeshot of this tomb, at different points of the road, are those piles of stone which have been accumulated during cen
